Hello Everyone - HD had a display of Endless Summer hydrangeas - 1 gal. for $9.99. They looked like they just arrived. I was thrilled! I new that removing the old one would leave quite a big hole so, I bought 2 of them to plant together to replace it. I can't wait to see the difference in performance!
I didn't have the heart to just discard the old one so we moved it to the border in the back. It's tucked back under the birch tree along the fence. The pic was taken this morning around 9:30am. It will receive about 3 hours of morning sun , 1 to 2 hours of dappled sun, then shade the rest of the day. The temps are steadily in the mid-70's during the day and mid-50's at night. I am wondering if I should prune down the height? There's a lot of foliage to support. (Hard to see in the pic with all the green...) I'm not concerned about losing the blooms next year if it would give it a better chance of survival in the long run.
Gee...reading that last line is a bit silly...the reason I moved it was because it didn't bloom...
This message was edited Sep 4, 2006 10:51 AM
Endless Summer blooms on new wood, so assuming your old one is also Endless Summer? it should be fine if you prune it now.
Ecrane3, No the old one was not Endless Summer (that's why I pulled it). I didn't want to just throw away the old one so, I stuck it in my shrub border. I'm just concerned about the stress of it having less roots and so much foliage. Should I cut it part way down to reduce the amount of foliage to give it a better chance? Or will it be OK left the way it is. (Not concerned about the lack of bloom - just want the best chance for survival)
I generally do prune back the top growth when I transplant things just to give them the best chance, especially if you think you lost a lot of roots in the transplanting process. You'll lose next year's blooms, but if it wasn't blooming much anyway then what are you really missing! If you want to wait and see though, you could give it a little time and if it doesn't seem to be wilting then you may not need to trim back the top--if I'm moving something and it's not too huge I'll often take the wait and see approach, and in many cases I haven't needed to trim it back.
This message is slightly off subject, but I also noticed a hosta in your pic that looks exactly like my hosta in color/size/shape. I inherited mine with the house, and don't know the name of it--by chance, do you?
Also, I would definitely prune back some foliage on your hydrangea, but not too much. You want some foliage left to help insulate the roots as winter sets in (yes, eventually, the leaves will go, but they do help with the first few frosts..), and you don't want to prune so severely that you encourage the plant to put out alot of new leaves this late in the year. Just prune a little, or even just cut some of the larger leaves in half to reduce moisture loss until the roots become reestablished. Water well for a few weeks and make sure you mulch and, if needed, water this first winter. Good Luck!
Hi Yotedog - the hosta is one division (of many!) from one that came with our house. I "think" it's Patriot. I've planted divisions all over. I even have a grouping at the mailbox in full sun that do well if kept watered. Not sure you could do that in Raleigh, though. I lived in Fayetteville for five years and can remember some of those summers! You could take a picture of yours and post on the hosta forum. There are some experts that could probably tell you for sure.
Thanks for the helpful tips on my hydrangea. I noticed the next morning after ecrane's post that it was a little wilted and hadn't recoved overnight so I cut it down by about 1/2 (but still plenty of foliage). This morning it was fine. Now that I've read your post, I hope I didn't take too much off and trigger a lot of new growth! I didn't know that you could cut the leaves in half. I'll be sure to keep it well watered. I also picked up some Wiltpruf tonight and I'll give it a spray.
My experience with plants other than hydrangeas (the hydrangeas that I've transplanted have been tiny enough that I got their whole root ball and didn't need to cut back) has been that it takes them a while to put out new growth after they've been transplanted--they tend to focus first on root growth and then top growth, so I think by the time it's ready to think about top growth it may time to go dormant for the winter and at that point I don't think it'll put out new growth. Anyway, the worst that'll happen is the new growth gets nipped by frost and you have to cut it back later, definitely a better result than the shrub not making it because you didn't cut it back at all.
